Dial or Digital Calipers?

[Celtic Armory]

I have a dial. The digitals are nice, but you have to rely on keeping a good battery in it.

 

[cyclesurvival]

Dial I have inch and metric. tried the digital but the dial has a feel you get used to. digital is good when you are working on metric and inc east to hit the button and convert from one to another.

 

[100$bill]

Mitutoyo or Starrett calipers have been around forever. Both their dial and digital are excelent. If you decide to go for dial calipers, try to get the ones with a .100" dial face as the resolution is harder to read on the .200" dial faces. I have a pair of digitals and now prefer them as I can change between MM and inch measurements easily. I also suggest buying a quality 1.000" standard or "gage block" to assure calibration is correct. Standards come free in many quality micrometer sets and can be found at most places that sell Mitutoyo or Starrett equipment. If you are really picky about your measurement, make sure the standard is traceable to a NIST certification. This would also apply to mass (weight) & volume standards